BRATISLAVA (Reuters) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday renewed his call for the European Union to end sanctions against Russia after meeting President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, saying they had failed to influence the settlement of any key issues.

A retired Argentine general has received another life sentence for killings, kidnappings and torture committed during the country's crackdown on leftists decades ago. Eighty-nine-year-old Luciano Benjamin Menendez is already serving several other life sentences for human rights violations. Thursday's verdict is for 282 disappearances, 52 homicides, 260 kidnappings and multiple cases of torture at a clandestine military base in the central Argentine city of Cordoba The repression of suspected leftists began under elected President Maria Estela Martinez de Peron and continued during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship. Former Army Capts. Hector Pedro Vergez and Ernesto Barreiro also were sentenced to life imprisonment. They directly oversaw the La Perla-La Ribera torture center. It's believed to be the largest such center outside the capital.

It's been many weeks since Ramzan Kadyrov, acting president of the Chechen Republic, has been in the news. Now late tonight after months of quietly rallying his own troops and cultivating regional and lower-level Kremlin officials, he has obtained an audience with President Vladimir Putin himself,

US and Russia meet in Geneva hoping for agreement on how to end the civil war and pave the way for a political solution

US secretary of state John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, will try to hammer out final details of a cooperation agreement on fighting Islamic State in Syria during talks in Geneva on Friday.

As fighting between Isis, the Syrian government and anti-regime rebels continued to rage across the country, diplomats hope that a deal will lead to a cessation of hostilities and relaunch talks on a political transition in the country.

Russia's New Education Minister Gives Stalin a NodVoice of AmericaPresident Vladimir Putin's choice of Olga Vasilyeva as Russia's education and science minister is proving to be one of his more controversial cabinet appointments, at least for the country's human rights activists and some representatives of religious ...and more »

A pair of dangerously close encounters between the Iranian and U.S. navies in the Persian Gulf this week have raised fresh questions about Tehran's intentions, a year after Obama administration officials hoped the much-touted nuclear deal would moderate the behavior of the Islamic republic and its military.

Chamayou, Grégoire (2015), translated by Janet Lloyd. A Theory of The Drone. New York: The New Press

LCCN: 2014033225

UG479 .C53 2013

Contents

Techniques and tactics — Methodologies for a hostile environment — The genealogy of the predator — The theoretical principles of manhunting — Surveillance and annihilation — Pattern-of-life analysis — Kill box — Counterinsurgency from the air — Vulnerabilities — Ethos and psyche — Drones and kamikazes — “That others may die” — A crisis in military ethos — Psychopathologies of the drone — Killing from a distance — Necroethics — Combatant immunity — A humanitarian weapon — Precision — The principles of the philosophy of the right to kill — Indelicate murderers — Warfare without combat — License to kill — Political bodies — In war as in peace — Democratic militarism — The essence of combatants — The fabrication of political automata — Epilogue: on war, from a distance.

Syrian Kurdish militia commanders are flouting the ultimatum US Vice President Joe Biden handed them Wednesday, Aug. 24 to retreat to east of the Euphrates or else forfeit US support. Instead,debkafile’s military sources report, they decided to stand their ground and fight it out with the Turkish army. By backing Ankara against the Kurds, the US has forfeited its main spearhead for the campaigns to oust ISIS from Raqqa and Mosul,

Eight police officers were killed and 45 people, two of whom are in critical condition, were wounded in bomb-laden truck attack carried out by the Kurdish PKK in the Cizre district of the southeastern province of Şırnak early on Friday Aug. 26.
The attack occurred at a police control point some 50 meters away from a riot police station in the Konak neighborhood on the Cizre-Şırnak highway.
While a huge damage incurred on the riot police station building, the highway was closed to traffic.

China Has Returned to Reform ModeBloombergHaving stabilized the economy with a mix of fiscal support and easy monetary settings, China'sleaders appear to be reviving a stalled reform push that's key to long-term growth prospects. The rush of announcements comes ahead of China's hosting of ...

»Today's Headlines and Commentary25/08/16 17:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Lawfare - Hard National Security Choices. Turkey has sent more tanks across the Syrian border , in what Reuters writes is not only a sign of Turkish determination to defeat the Islamic State but a signal t...

»The Education of the Kremlin Elites25/08/16 10:49 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. Few longtime insiders have left their coveted positions during Putin’s first 15 years in power. If anything, they were climbing the Kremlin ranks and Forbes rich-man tables. ...

»Russia calls snap military drills25/08/16 10:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from www.washingtontimes.com stories: Security. MOSCOW (AP) - Russia's defense ministry says President Vladimir Putin has announced snap military drills on land and in the Black and Caspian Seas. The ministry s...

»Trump Vs. The Elites - Daily Caller25/08/16 10:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from house judiciary committee - Google News. Trump Vs. The Elites Daily Caller She was a young attorney working on the House Judiciary Committee to prosecute the president. Jerry Zeifman, a counsel and Chief o...

»The Early Edition: August 25, 201625/08/16 08:42 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Just Security. Zoë Chapman Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. IRAQ and SYRIA Another nine or ...

»The Sources of Russian Conduct25/08/16 04:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from The National Interest. In February 1946, George Kennan sent back from Moscow the “ Long Telegram ,” an analysis of the sources of Soviet foreign policy, which came to serve as the intellectual ...

»The Early Edition: August 24, 201624/08/16 12:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Just Security. Zoë Chapman zoeadmin Before the start of business, Just Security provides a curated summary of up-to-the-minute developments at home and abroad. Here’s today’s news. IRAQ and SYRIA Turkey l...

»VP Biden on Gulen24/08/16 12:43 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinksmikenova shared this story from Voice of America. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said the United States had no prior knowledge of the Turkish coup and would never support the treasonous behavior of the military.

Reviews

Reviews

The statistical effects of the October 28 Letter | Federal Bureau of Investigation - NYT

"Many good questions could and should al-zo be asked when Mr. Comey testifies in the closed session of the House Intelligence Committee next week... Comey's overall "motivations" might be complex and and at the same time simple: the security of the country. The details of these complexities are not easy to read..." - by Michael Novakhov - 4.25.17

Gangs, Intelligence Services, and Politics

M.N.: It would be unforgivably naive to suppose that the U.S. criminal Underworld is not controlled these days by the Russian Mafia, and, in turn, by the Russian Intelligence Services. It would also be unforgivably naive to suppose that there are no messages contained in the various criminal acts, and that there are no connections between the Underworld's recent operations and the present situation in the U.S., including the present investigations. As a matter of facts and the investigative leads, they might hold and provide the most easily accessible clues. Attention, the FBI and the significant others: do access these clues.

Smoke and Fire: The Trumputkins, the Trumpumpkins, "The Tillerson Ultimatum", and bad, bad Assad

By Michael Novakhov: So, the Trump - Putin mysterious marriage is on the rocks... The unresolved issues, whatever, whoever, and however triggers the attention to them and their discussions, have to be resolved: soundly, timely, fundamentally, and the long-term; otherwise they come back and accumulate, and together with the other unresolved issues, snowball and cause the avalanches. Nobody needs this mess, enough snow jobs everywhere... That's what Mishustin thinks...

"If you really want to fight ISIS, look into its origins and essence first." - Fight Against "ISIS"

In the opinion of the great many observers, those "sham" groups are nothing more than the creations and proxies of the Russian Military Intelligence (GRU), formed on the basis of the coalitions of the disaffected ex- Baathist Saddam's military (and first of all, military intelligence officers, historically tied with the GRU), with the "rebels-for-hire", and the Assad's Syrian Intelligence Services, which are also the proxies of the GRU.

"Trumpism" as the "social-political experiment" and the "Gang of Four"

The engineered election of Donald Trump as the U.S. President is the joint operation of the German, Russian, and Israeli Intelligence Services with the major executive and operational role played by the Russian-Jewish Mafia at the head of the International Organized Crime - by Michael Novakhov

Tillerson's Complaint:

"Lavrov won't dance with me..."

Lavrov's Response:

"My mama done tol' me... A man's a two-face..."

Vovchick "The Tarantula", why were you so "loud"?!

For Russia (or any other state), this extraordinary, unusual, demonstrative, primitive, blatant "loudness" was like digging her own grave with regard to the US - Russian relations, especially at the time when their improvement and the relief of sanctions is so desired by them, and no doubts, they would understand this very well. This peculiarity in this affair points to the possible deliberate set-up from the third party... The US - Russia - Germany triangle and the role of the revived German intelligence in it after the WW2 have to be examined under the most powerful microscope, in all their hidden details, and in the historical perspective.

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks

Howl!

The America of my dreams: Shattered. Raped.

The King Trump - by Michael Novakhov

The public prayers for His Majesty's health, wealth, and well-being, and also for the development of his additional intellectual capacities should be held no less than three times a day in all public squares, government offices, courthouses, and the places of worship, and also in all the private and public toilets, with the benefit of generating the taxable and multiple extra-flushes. Hopefully, it will flush out in due time.

The Information Age

All the relevant information at your fingertips: Information is not a commodity for sale but one of the most vital and important inalienable rights. To paraphrase Descartes: "I have access to information therefore I am". ("Information Age" - post of 11.30-21.13 | Image from: Information - Google Images)